The Casting Process – Part 1 Where Commercial Acting Jobs are Born
ByWhether casting an ad, a TV series or a feature film, casting agents work under time and budget constraints placed on them by the client (producer, advertiser, director). The person charged with finding the right actors is a Casting Director or Casting Agent. We’ll use them interchangeably so we don’t want to insult anyone by calling them the wrong title.
Gian Carlo - Our friend booked a Nickelodeon Commercial
Let’s look at advertising. In general, an advertiser knows they need a campaign for a specific time of year, promotion or sale, whatever. They work backwards from that setting a timeline, final edit, delivery to media, shooting, casting, to the beginning and creating the concept. Major department and specialty shops know they have spring, summer, fall and winter lines to promote and holiday specific sales etc.
In a perfect world, they have five or six months lead time. In reality, there may be five or six weeks or even five or six days to complete the process. The shorter the time, the more pressure on the Casting Director to get the right cast, NOW. That is why it is essential for them to find the right people quickly and for your child to be that person if they can.
Some Ad Agencies have in-house casting departments, but usually, a Casting Director or company is hired on a job-by-job to find the right people to fulfill the Client’s (Art Director/Writer/Ad Executive/Business Owner’s) Vision. The Casting Director is given a brief which can be anything from notes scribbled on a napkin, to a full-blown ad campaign brief with back story, character descriptions, scripts even test photos or videos. From this, the Casting Director sets about the task of finding the right actors.
Busy Casting Directors can have several projects going simultaneously, and may have just days, even hours to get a roster of potential candidates in front of the client for approval. With on-line casting services, Casting Directors can look at pages and pages of thumbnail size headshots in minutes. Hard Copy, 8×10 or A5 size headshots generally don’t make it to this part of the process. You have a split second for your tiny photo to catch their eye as potentially being “the one” to fulfill the vision.
The Casting Assistant then contacts all of the potential candidates to come audition either on tape or live in front of the client. With on-line casting, this is usually takes just a few clicks to get you a spot on the schedule and an email and/or text message to alert you of the audition.
Otherwise, the Casting Assistant sets up the schedule and calls you (or your agent) directly. It is important that you keep your contact information updated on all on-line casting services (details later). Generally, you will have less than a day before the audition. Therefore, you’ll have only a short time to confirm whether you will be able to attend. If you are a busy Showbiz Parent, you will want to check your texts and emails on a regular basis throughout the day.
Coming up – You Got the Audition, Now What?
